Jeff Kaliss: I Want to Take You Higher

In the American arts, two narratives frequently occur. First, theres the classic: Boy has talent, talent brings fame, then dope, lawyers, paranoia, arrest, a downward spiral ending in death (or worse), a vastly shriveled talent, and a stack of legal bills follow. Then theres the other, less-famous narrative: the forever-unfinished masterpiece. This is when a perfectionists refusal to release an incomplete work becomes more interesting in itself than any finished product could hope to be (see: Axl Rose, Chinese Democracy). The story of Sly & the Family Stone has a little bit of both, which is why Jeff Kaliss I Want to Take You Higher (Backbeat, $24.95) is such a compelling read. Sly Stone (real, unhip name: Sylvester Stewart) and his band made music funky enough for the Apollo and trippy enough for Woodstock. But since as early as the late 60s, Sly himself has mostly snorted a lot of toot, forgot to pay his taxes, missed important gigs, spent exorbitant label advances on unfinished music, hid from the FBI, andjust recently, in factparticipated in a Family Stone comeback that was more like weird performance art than a return to form. This book details it all, but is most notable because its author was granted face time with Sly himself, whose life, we learn, now parallels Howard Hughes (nocturnal, isolated, constantly in his home studio recording God knows what). Finishing the book, one is sadly reminded of Slys squandered genius. Which also brings to mind an apt quote from Rick James: Cocaines a hell of a drug. Elliott Bay Book Co., 101 S. Main St., 624-6600, www.elliottbaybook.com. Free. 2 p.m. BRIAN J. BARR